Jackson Allen's Blog, page 2

New Scifi Short Story – Pew Pew Pew!

Could video games make you a billionaire? That’s one of the questions I ask (and answer) in Pew Pew Pew – a new scifi short story out for consideration. I started working on this short a few years ago, combining some ideas I’d been thinking about. One of the main questions I wanted to ask is – how do you handle your *very last shot* at making it? That’s where Bill, our protagonist, finds himself – looking for funding for his space start up at a vendor trade show.

I don’t know if you know this, but a LOT happens at those shows. There’s commerce, business, opportunity – there’s also desperation, regret, and dysfunction. It’s the perfect backdrop for a simple three-act play where two aerospace startup guys battle for their final chance at making their dreams come true. I think you’ll enjoy what happens next.

Pew Pew Pew! is my twenty-third short story – one of these days I think I’m going to release all my short stories into a single volume. But, one step at a time. Right now, celebrating the completion of a new scifi short story by looking for what’s next.

Hope you find time to do the same!

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Art: Looking Beyond the Obvious

Perusing the Art Institute Website this week, I’m reminded of something important for art: Looking Beyond the Obvious is vital. This all started when I came across a photo on the website – What to See in an Hour. They included the above photo as a ‘must see’ item and I was intrigued. Why this photo?

I started looking at it, then I started researching it. The photograph by Cindy Sherman has an interesting sense of immediacy to it. What happened to this person – why does this photo exist? What makes it worthy of inclusion at the Art Institute? AIC offered no explanation beyond – In Untitled #92, she depicted herself in a moment of cinematic distress, crouched on the floor with wet hair. Her costume—white blouse and plaid skirt—evokes a school uniform, and her well-manicured hands offer evidence of some unknown struggle. An imposing darkness surrounds her but a bright light, suggestive of a flashlight or the headlights of a car, illuminates her blank expression.

Looking Beyond the Obvious

Um, okay? I still don’t understand what that means. I still don’t have the answers to my questions. Is the lady okay? Did she do something bad, is something bad happening to her? There’s no one to tell me. That’s when I realized the point – that’s the point of the photo. Sherman wanted you to ask those questions, she wanted us to feel uncertain and confused. Questions that have no easy answers, uncertainty, confusion – those are common themes of her experience as a woman. That’s the point of the art. It’s supposed to make you feel something.

But what does the picture *mean*?? I’ll get to that in a second. Right now I want to talk about art in general – in order for it to make you feel something, you need to know it’s context. What was the artist trying to say? Were they right, wrong, or crazy? There are no easy answers to the questions, and that’s kind of the point. Human beings have an innate desire to ‘look beyond the obvious‘ to identify deeper patterns or ideas.

Data without context may be worthless, but context without data is stupidity. Starting with context before data is also stupid: you’re framing facts to support the theory, instead of theory to support the facts. But the point of giving me data with no context is where the art happens – that’s where we’re looking beyond the obvious.

But There’s More to It

Here’s what makes art interesting – you can make art that no one cares about, or you can have cares that no one ‘arts’ about. What makes art meaningful are the emotions communicated between the artist and the audience. Creating and experiencing art is a reciprocal, contextual, and ever-changing relationship. They teach you how to hone those ideas and processes in school, or if you’re a self-taught artist like me, you’ll learn it on your own. That’s what they call ‘Outsider art.’  

But at the end of the day, we’re all chasing that relationship. We (artists) are making art that communicates emotions, ideas, and thoughts through a cultural language (art) to people we hope will receive that message (audience).

In the case of Cindy Sherman’s Untitled #92, she was making a point about what we, the audience, will experience when we see this woman. No story, no context – we starting filling in the blanks of what we see with our own story.

Sherman was challenging us to experience and reckon with our assumptions about the woman – she was pointing out, using 1981 technology and cultural language: ‘hey, do you ever stop and *think* about what you think, and what that does to other people?’ Sherman’s the ‘artist’, her photos are the ‘paintbrush’ and your emotions are the ‘canvas.’

So yeah, wow.

What This Teaches Me About Art

Looking beyond the obvious with art reminds us to listen to that little voice in our head saying ‘there’s more to it’ when we look at the world around us. Current events got you down? There’s more to the story – go find out what it is. Neighbor acting like a jerk (yes, Gary, I know you read my blog) about his garbage cans? There’s more to the story – go find out what it is (I heard the news, Gary – I’m so sorry for your loss).

But take a step back from there – what does that mean as an artist? It means I need to be intentional about a couple of different things that I admit, I didn’t really consider before.

How am I getting the audience to trust me enough so that they’ll take the data (the story) and provide their own context about what they’re experiencing to achieve the appropriate reciprocal, contextual relationship we’re both looking for?What am I communicating through my art? What do I want them to take from the story? Is it just about ‘playing with ideas’ or is there something deeper I should be working toward?

I don’t have a complete answer to those questions yet, but I’m going to continue rumbling on this. In the meantime, I’m inviting you to talk to me about this on BlueSky and Mastodon and let’s see if we can find some answers together.

The point of looking beyond the obvious with art is an expression of faith, hope, and joy to the world. ‘My life is more than what I’m experiencing, and so is yours.’ ‘Here’s what I’m experiencing and what I think it means, please tell me what you think.’ Even if we never find the answers, the fact that we can speak the questions makes us feel seen, heard, and loved. Your art can’t do that unless you’re used to looking beyond the obvious.

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Sci-Friday #225 – 80s Moral Panic and E.T.

For this Sci-Friday, let’s talk E.T. and 80s moral panic. I know it may seem hard to understand if you’re under 35, but the 80s were the era of Moral Panic. This clip courtesy of Found Footage Festival encapsulates the weaponized ignorance of middle America better than words can say. Take a look:



So there you have it – E.T. is the tool of Satan. I know this might come as a surprise to all you kids who grew up watching the poop-colored anthropomorphic Snicker’s bar but let there be no ifs, ands, or buts. E.T. will make you worship the devil. It’s a concept so dumb, you’ll wonder if you’re living in a Bloom County cartoon. It gives me an idea for an 80s nostalgia cafe like Back to the Future 2 except it comes with a moral panic Escape Room.

Science fiction is no stranger to moral panic – check out this chart of science fiction-related moral panics from the 20th and 21st century:

Comic book panicThat comic books were negatively influencing young peoplePopularization of comic books among the youth, publication of  Seduction of the Innocent United States1930s–1950sViolent video games panicThat video games were influencing children into committing violent actsPopularization of violent video games among the youth, discredited psychological theories about gamesUnited States1970s–1990sDungeons & Dragons panicThat some RPG table-top games, especially D&D, were leading young people into drug use and SatanismPopularization of mythical-themed role-play games, Christian and BADD activism,[34] other controversiesUnited States1980s

This little moment of 80s moral panic and E.T. made me smile, I hope it brings a smile to your face, too. Please feel welcomed to dive down the rabbit hole of every other Sci-Friday I’ve published in the past couple years. Have a great Weekend. <3

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Storytelling and Suspension of Disbelief

When it comes to storytelling and suspension of disbelief, I’m a fan of Ogden Nash’s advice. Wanna hear it? Here you go: Here’s a good rule of thumb; too clever is dumb. The art of  storytelling – especially science fiction – must contain some suspension of disbelief (SoD). Otherwise you’ll have idiots in the theater going ‘wait, why did Iron Man punch the Hulk? They’re supposed to be friends. Worst movie eVar!!’

But too much SoD ruins the story. Take for example, the movie Arrival by Denis Villeneuve from 2016. The entire plot (Spoiler alert) hinges on a suspension of disbelief on our part that human beings can alter time simply by changing their perception of it. In the last act of the film, the protagonist learns the alien language alters humans’ linear perception of time, allowing them to experience memories of future events. Banks’s visions of her daughter are revealed to be premonitions; her daughter will not be born until sometime in the future.

That never sat well with me as the audience – like, all this time all we had to do was ‘change our perception?’ That seemed awfully familiar, but I couldn’t figure out why. Then it hit me – ‘Arrival’ has the same plot as ‘Somewhere in Time.’

Arrival and Somewhere in Time

If you’ve never heard of Somewhere in Time, give it a watch. Christopher Reeves in a non-Superman role, I love anything that Christopher Plummer does, it’s got a great soundtrack. However, the entire movie revolves around the idea that Reeves the protagonist can travel back in time to re-unite with his soulmate by altering his perception of time. Somewhere in Time has a cult following – it’s one family members’ favorite movie – but it never really landed with the general audience. ‘Somewhere in Time is murky and underwritten,’ one critic noted. ‘The basic premise would be thin even for a Harlequin romance.’

They aren’t kidding – the idea that all you need for successful time travel is to *believe* that you can, changing your perception, is a thin premise. We all know that successful time travel requires a DeLorean. Just kidding.

Suspension of Disbelief and Idiot Plots

My point is that Arrival, like Somewhere in Time, relies too much on SoD – the moment we figured out that there was no *there* there in the third act – I was completely out of the movie. Amy Adams’ character needed some serious therapy to understand why she would willingly bring a child into the world knowing she would die. Her entire perception of right and wrong needed to be changed, not just her perception of time.

I really felt the audiences would be too smart to fall for that gag. In the craft of storytelling, SoD is a dangerously convenient idiot plot device. As the late, great Phillip K. Dick said: ‘Reality is that in which – when you stop believing in it – does not go away.’ At the end of Arrival – Adams and Remmer are confessing their love. The question is asked whether they would change their life choices if they could be seen from beginning to end. Banks knows that she will agree to have a child with him despite knowing their child will die from an incurable disease. Donnelly will leave them both as a result of her revealing that she knew this.

Does that make sense? Like lady, sleep on it. Talk to some friends – get some feedback. And what makes you think your S/O is just gonna roll over and play dead while you mess with his life? You don’t think an intelligent, mature human being would wake up the following week and go ‘Wait, what did she mean by *that*??’

Now look, I’m not saying Arrival is a bad movie. It’s based on the brilliant author Ted Chiang’s ‘Story of Your Life.’ I love Villeneuve’s work – if you’re a fan of Arrival, I’m certainly not going to yuck your yum. Go nuts, enjoy, re-watch it as many times as you want. It didn’t work for me as a story, but I’m glad it’s working for you.

Suspension of Disbelief and Plane Wings

The metaphor of SoD that works for storytelling – at least for me – is a plane wing. Flaps on a plane wing move the plane – or in this case, the story – up or down. The goal of that effort is to bring the audience safely to a new level and return them gracefully to Earth at the end. No SoD means the story never leaves the ground. Too much SoD and your story becomes like a stalled plane – you’re famous on the five o’clock news, but not for the reasons you want.

So take this advice – be intentional about the suspension of disbelief in your storytelling. Even the most powerful names in Hollywood can fall victim to thinking they can get away with it. Sometimes they can, but other times they can’t. Some pilots can get away with those kinds of manuveurs in their aircraft, but as they say – there are old pilots, and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots.

Let’s approach our storytelling with intentionality and authenticity – use suspension of disbelief with care.

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George Lucas Needs to Make Another Movie

Bear with me – this is an idea I’ve been toying with for a while: George Lucas needs to make another movie. Sure, he’s opening the Museum of Narrative Art, but so what? J. Paul Getty had museums, but he was still a billionaire lowlife. A part of me wrestles with the idea that George Lucas’ legacy would be better served if he focused on making more movies instead of talking about movies he made.

Hear me out – before Star Wars, George Lucas was an accomplished filmmaker. American Graffiti, THX1138 were both iconic feature-length projects that re-shaped culture and the way people thought about visual storytelling.

No, I’m not kidding. American Graffiti ‘received widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It is widely credited with launching a wave of 1950s and early 1960s nostalgia in American pop culture, influencing the teen comedy genre and reviving interest in early rock and roll among the baby boomer generation.’ For fans of classic science fiction, “THX 1138” is an intellectual and artistic achievement. It asks difficult questions about the role of technology in society, the value of free will, and the cost of rebellion.  George Lucas changed filmmaking and storytelling *before* he made Star Wars. The rest, unfortunately, is history.

No, seriously. Tell me another film project that George Lucas worked on between A New Hope and The Phantom Menace. Lucas serving as an uncredited co-director or second unit director contrasts with Spielberg’s fifteen film projects in the same period. Whatever professional or creative experience Spielberg gained by continuing to direct films paid off with projects like ‘Schindler’s List‘, The Adventures of Tintin, Catch Me If You Can, and so on.

This isn’t a George Lucas bashing session – the guy is a legend for a reason. George Lucas re-invented entire sections of the film-making industry (THX, ILM) to better serve his artistic pursuit – we’re still riding that wave of imagination and aspiration fifty years later. What if he focused on honing his visual storytelling like Spielberg or Zemeckis did. Our portfolio of 80s and 90s-era scifi and dramatic storytelling could look very different. Choosing to go back and just make films – even if they’re short film no one watches – could re-set his visual storytelling style, re-shape and re-articulate the values of storytelling now in the year 2025.

Look, I’m tired of hating on Star Wars or complaining that George Lucas ‘owes’ us better movies. None of that’s true. I’m simply offering an alternate perspective to the past 50 years of fandom, Star Wars, and scifi storytelling. George Lucas needs to make another movie, to show us how it’s done and to prove to himself that he’s more than Star Wars.

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Great Moments in Bad Scifi – Earth Day Special 1990

For everyone who asked what it was like growing up in the 90s, here’s the answer: there were a lot of great moments in bad scifi. Yeah, seriously. This dumpster fire makes the Star Wars Holiday Special look like Citizen Kane. Come for E.T. – stay for the Golden Girls. Here’s ABC’s answer to ‘The planet is on fire’ back in 1990. Enjoy!



The Earth Day Special has a few things going for it. Several cutaways are made to famous fictional characters including Jeff Bergman’s first performnce as Bugs Bunny following the death of Mel Blanc the year prior. Also this special was one of Jim Henson’s final performances as Kermit the Frog prior to his death later that year. Thankfully, we have other things to remember Henson by.

Do I sound like I hate the Earth Day 1990 Special? You’re right, I do. This turkey is one of the more egregious examples of a star-studded exercise in performative activism – the 90s were full of these monstrosities (Comic Relief, Voices That Care, Heal the World).  A star-studded cast explaining things can be done correctly (e.g. – Anthony Bourdain in The Big Short) but this isn’t one of those moments.

Yes, ABC’s Earth Day Special 1990 was one of those great moments in bad scifi. I’m not the right person to comment on the social issues surrounding performative activism and celebrity-driven social causes. Clearly something’s going on there that doesn’t smell right but I’ve got other things to do. Meantime, the best defense against performative activism is to make fun of it, which I encourage all of you to do right here. Enjoy!

 

 

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Mike.Sierra.Echo – New Painting

Time to share a new digital composite painting for Mike.Sierra.Echo. This picture has been living in my head for a while and I’m happy to get it out and move onto other topics. Being creative isn’t just about joy, it’s about getting something out of your brain to make room for everything else. Take a close look at the picture here and then we’ll talk about how I make digital composites.

Not gonna lie – it’s been stressful working on this painting. Not a visual artist by trade – people despise ‘AI slop’ – so the best I can do until I can afford to hire human artists is to make digi-composites like this one. I find different pictures from different places and balance them togehter into a single scene. Kinda similar to how Norman Rockwell created his pictures, except that he was an iconic artist and I’m just Jackson.

This picture represents a lot of different emotions in ‘Mike.Sierra.Echo.’ – it’s the moment Mike is seeing the space elevator for the first time in it’s natural state. It’s the first time he’s on the bottom of the Pedernales facility. His hair’s messy, his clothes are kinda grody, he’s alone in the darkness looking out at the elevator as it peeks out of the shadows. Tiny people in big places can change everything about the world if they’re standing on the right spot.

Working on this painting has been a nice distraction from waiting to hear rejections from lit agents. Meanwhile, I have a stack of thoughts I need to get out on the blog – one of the biggest being ‘why are you blogging at all?’ It’s been on my mind, waiting for the right moment to discuss. Talk more, soon.

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Notes from Eugene – 07/25/2025 – Befuddled Baffoonery Befalls Bedroom Bullies

Dateline: 7/24/2025 – More Befuddled Baffoonery Befalls Brackish Bedroom Big Gun Bullies. A man seeking to pay for the services of a female companion found himself deprived of more than his dignity. The low-rent lothario was also relieved of worldly possessions in the form of  his wallet. The sex scallawags scarpered, but quickly surrendered to the tender attentions of Eugene SWAT. A court date is pending.

“And not five blocks from here,” RoseMarie commented as she daintely deposited a plastic Popov bottle into the recycle bin. “What’s this world coming to?”

“Ozzy Osbourne always had the right answer,” I look down the block in the direction of our local larcenous slobs. “Bite the head off a chicken in front of a crowd and suddenly everything else feels almost okay.”

The old Ozz-man would have laughed at the ridiculousness of our district dystopia, but he died this week along with Malcolm Jamal-Warner, Hulk Hogan, and Chuck Mangione. Celebrities fall from this mortal coil like worn Mahjongg tiles, no more cunning displays of fury and folly.

To illustrate my point – insanity is elevated to an art form in Eugene. That’s why I love this place. Beautiful madness rains down upon us in bouts of whimsy and fun festivals of furitive fascination. Take that away, and what do we have to look forward to? Nothing more than forest fires, the odd corporate scandal, and the compulsion of creeps to venerate venues full of vulnerable people. Breaches of the law are boring now, no imagination of illegality or aspiration of affront. Criminals can’t even crime properly.

RoseMarie shushes me and returns to her daily digest of Australian Rules Football – the Hawks and Blues clash in round 20 of the 2025 Toyota AFL Premiership Season is the closest thing she has to a hobby. I fail to see the appeal, but then RoseMarie has no interest in coming to the Mann Film Festival with me. To each their own.

 

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Sci-Friday #224 – The Empire Strikes Back SFX LaserDisc

Ran across something fun to share for Sci-Friday: a 49-minute The Empire Strikes Back SFX presentation from the original LaserDisc release. Come for the SFX, fall down a rabbit hole of ILM and video production history. Watch first:

This is the Original 1980 LaserDisc recording of “SP FX Special Effects, The Empire Strikes Back”. Hosted by Mark Hamill. Fun, right? Watching them create the SFX of Empire Strikes Back is always a joy to contemplate. And yet – we’re only scratching the surface – let’s talk about LaserDisc and Video Disc!

That’s right, kids – before we had Blu-Ray, 4K, HD, and DVD, we had limited options for watching our favorite movies. Rent or buy VHS tapes in low-definition, or could spend hundreds or thousands on a disc system. Between 1963 and 1980, different companies played around with ways to show video in the best qualities. Formats that resulted were Betamax and VHS for tape, and LaserDisc and Video Disc for disc players.

Most people recognize LaserDisc as being an ancestor to CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray. Video Disc was the wild step-child of LPs and 45s. You could actually play a movie like a record. They were cheaper to manufacture than VHS players, so what was the problem? Easy. Video Discs had practical drawbacks. Your discs lasted for ~500 plays, movies had to be trimmed to accomodate the max viewing time of 1-hr per disc side. Forget watching a long-form movie like The Ten Commandments or Gone with the Wind. LaserDiscs, by contrast, were seen as the better option for people willing to spend the money – they were even endorsed by Spock!

 

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Another Asteroid Flyby – 2022 YS5!

Hooray – another asteroid (2022 YS5) made a flyby of Earth! According to NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), 2022 YS5 is about 120 feet (36.5 meters) in diameter—comparable to a 10-storey building. While its size may raise eyebrows, it’s not large enough to be classified as “potentially hazardous.”

I’m interested in 2022 YS5 because it’s a similar story to 2008 EV5, the asteroid that takes a starring role in Mike.Sierra.Echo. As you may be interested to know – a space elevator must have a counterweight to hold all that cable in place and a mountain-sized asteroid like 2008 EV 5 fits that bill nicely.

According to the Metro – 2022 YS5 by Nasa will pass us at a staggering 13,980mph. Fun fact – that’s 70 times as fast as a Lamborghini Gallardo, or 7 times as fast as a rifle bullet. Americans will do anything to avoid the metric system.

Speaking of which – happy to tell you that I’ve finished Mike.Sierra.Echo version 4 – it’s out for consideration among 20+ lit agents/agencies. Waiting to hear back and I’ll update you immediately if I hear good news. This blog post – about kayaking – has many positive insights that translate well to the business of writing and being creative. ‘Kayaking taught me to be okay with repeatedly looking dumb in public’ is great advice for anyone looking to try something new.

Additional Notes

One question jumped out at me this week – ‘geeze, Jax – why are you blogging like it’s 2008? Wake up and smell the 2020s!’ I have some thoughts about this and I’ll share them in a separate post.

Y No ‘Notes from Eugene’?

I’m working on one but haven’t translated the weirdness into words I’m proud of yet. Stay tuned.

 

 

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